IDF Adapting Training to Hezbollah Battle Doctrine

Ten years after the Second Lebanon War, the IDF has made substantial changes in the way it trains its infantry for war against Hezbollah – arguably Israel’s most formidable military threat in the immediate region.

In the lead up to the 2006 conflict, the infantry had became rusty at war, spending nearly all of its time in counter-terrorism and anti-riot missions in the West Bank. The little training it did do involved largely unrealistic scenarios, like fighting in open areas, which were starkly different from the village battlefields of southern Lebanon that awaited it.

Today, according to a senior military source who is familiar with current infantry training practices, nearly every aspect of preparations has been revamped. The length of training programs for conscripts and reserves has grown exponentially under the current chief of staff. […]